Graham Rips Legislature For Short-changing Kids

May 17, 1985|By Linda Kleindienst, Tallahassee Bureau Chief

TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Bob Graham Thursday blasted the Legislature for reneging on its promise to fund a major child-care package and stripping money from a program designed to reward the state`s best teachers.

Speaking at the Capital Tiger Bay Club alongside Senate President Harry Johnston and House Speaker James Harold Thompson, Graham compared the current legislative session to a baseball game. He said that while lawmakers are in the bottom of the seventh inning -- with only two weeks to go -- they have yet to bring home a scoring run.

``There have been quite a few hits so far, but we haven`t scored any runs, and it`s a nothing-nothing tie,`` Graham said.

The governor said the $14 billion budget bills passed by the House and Senate Thursday fell far short of lawmakers` promises to provide better funding for child-care programs.

In Graham`s budget proposal, the children`s issues get $25 million in new money, while the House has set aside $14.5 million and the Senate, $11 million. Most of the money is earmarked for additional day-care slots, more child-abuse investigators and a mandatory fingerprinting and criminal background check of all child-care workers in the state.

The governor`s budget proposal this year was funded by a more than $100 million package of user fee increases, such driver-license fee hikes. The Senate rejected those proposals and the House passed a $61 million package of its own.

Graham also sharply criticized the Senate`s ``misguided attempt to scuttle the master-teacher program,`` when it took $15 million from that program to help fund salary increases for all public school teachers. That move was encouraged by education lobbyists who have fought the merit-pay program since its inception.

``The education lobbyists did to education reform like what the Philadelphia police did to the MOVE house -- they blew it up and set it on fire,`` Graham said.

He also said lawmakers are making a serious error by not changing a 1963 title act which has resulted in the state losing title to thousands of acres of land.

``There are thousands of acres of state land worth millions of dollars at risk unless we close this loophole,`` Graham said. ``This is no issue to take home.``

But Johnston said lawmakers are hesitant to move too quickly on the complex issue. ``It`s not so easy to cavalierly repeal a 1963 act. We`re afraid a lot of property rights will go down at the same time.``

Both Johnston and Thompson sidestepped lengthy discussion of the weighty issues facing lawmakers this session, opting instead to make political jokes and take light-hearted jabs at each other and Graham. Thompson, who has repeatedly said he plans to adjourn the session on time, said, ``I`m not digging in too deeply.``